Netflix Announces New True Crime Documentaries

On the heels of Netflix’s pop-culture phenomenon Wild Wild Country comes two true crime original documentary series, Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist and brand new episodes of the critically-acclaimed series The Staircase, which will launch alongside the original ten episodes. The next chapter of The Staircase will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Staircase follows the compelling story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home, and the 16 year judicial battle that followed. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade was granted unusual access to the case immediately following Kathleen’s death in 2001 in Durham, North Carolina. Her husband, Michael, a local public figure and successful novelist, quickly becomes the prime suspect.

De Lestrade’s cameras were on hand to capture every moment of this extraordinary story from arrest to verdict, following in intimate detail Peterson’s home, the family and his defense team as it considered its strategic options. Brand new episodes of The Staircase will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 28 before they launch on Netflix this summer alongside the original series.

The truth behind an extraordinary criminal case, known as the “pizza bomber heist,” is brought to light in the four-part original documentary series Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist, from executive producers Mark and Jay Duplass. In 2003 in Erie, Pennsylvania, a robbery gone wrong and a terrifying public murder capture the nation’s attention, and a bizarre collection of Midwestern hoarders, outcasts, and lawbreakers play cat-and-mouse with the FBI. Eventually, a middle-aged mastermind named Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong — once a town beauty, now a woman grappling with mental illness — is arrested. But 15 years later, Evil Genius proves there’s more to the conspiracy and murders than was ever thought.

The Staircase is produced by What’s Up Films, directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and produced by Matthieu Belghiti and Allyson Luchak.

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